This section introduces aspects that may be helpful to facilitating a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Fourth generation (4G) wireless mobile telecommunications technology, also known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, was designed to provide high capacity mobile multimedia with high data rates particularly for human interaction. Next generation or fifth generation (5G) technology is intended to be used not only for human interaction, but also for machine type communications in so-called Internet of Things (IoT) networks.
While 5G networks are intended to enable massive IoT services (e.g., very large numbers of limited capacity devices) and mission-critical IoT services (e.g., requiring high reliability), improvements over legacy mobile communication services are supported in the form of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services providing improved wireless Internet access for mobile devices.
In an example communication system, user equipment (5G UE in a 5G network or, more broadly, a UE) such as a mobile terminal (subscriber) communicates over an air interface with a base station or access point referred to as a gNB in a 5G network. The access point (e.g., gNB) is illustratively part of an access network of the communication system. For example, in a 5G network, the access network is referred to as a 5G System and is described in 5G Technical Specification (TS) 23.501, V15.0.0, entitled “Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; System Architecture for the 5G System,” the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In general, the access point (e.g., gNB) provides access for the UE to a core network (CN), which then provides access for the UE to other UEs and/or a data network such as a packet data network (e.g., Internet).
TS 23.501 goes on to define a 5G Service-Based Architecture (SBA) which models services as network functions (NFs) that communicate with each other using representational state transfer application programming interfaces (Restful APIs).
Furthermore, 5G Technical Specification (TS) 33.501, V0.7.0, entitled “Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Security Architecture and Procedures for the 5G System,” the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, further describes security management details associated with a 5G network.
Security management is an important consideration in any communication system. However, due to continuing attempts to improve the architectures and protocols associated with a 5G network in order to increase network efficiency and/or subscriber convenience, security management issues can present a significant challenge.